Quality guitars are expensive instruments. In addition to their being highly prized possessions of serious musicians, they can become collector items of great value. Musicians and collectors accordingly take great pains to care for and preserve the finishes of their guitars, which often consist of expensive or exotic woods and synthetics.
However, guitars are ultimately meant to be used, and their use subjects them to wear. This is especially true of electric guitars, whose use tends to be more dramatic and movement-oriented than that of classical or acoustic guitars, in keeping with the type of music for which electric guitars are best suited.
Electric guitars are especially subject to wear on the back or rear surface of the guitar body from belt buckles, buttons, zippers and other hard or abrasive items on the player's person.
A common device for protecting a guitar's surface is an elasticized terry cloth "sock " which fits over the back, sides and part of the front of the guitar body. The sock covers so much of the guitar that musicians are generally unwilling to use it during performance because of its appearance and interference with play. Moreover, the sock is not very effective in protecting the guitar's surface.